Pages

Friday, August 31, 2012

Good morning! As promised, I have the 2nd part of Lilacquer's Fifth Element Collection! Today I'll be showing the greens. If you missed my post on the blues, come see HERE.

Zorg Industries and Super Green

First up is Zorg Industries! From the Etsy listing, this is a "murky gray jelly with a subtle green to blue shift, almost ugly. Almost!" I definitely prefer this color over black, especially because it brings out the duochrome a lot more. I'm showing over black, white, and by itself. No top coat.

Index: One coat over black

Middle: 2 coats over white

Ring and Pinky: 3 coats by itself

2 coats over white

1 coat over black. It's a more subtle shift, but I like it!

Next up is Super Green! I like this so much more than I expected to, and the duochrome over black was a surprise to me! From it's Etsy listing, it's a "acid green with darker green shimmer verging on a metallic orange." Again, I'm showing over black, white, and on it's own with no top coat.

Index: One coat over black

Middle: 2 coats over white

Ring and Pinky: 3 coats by itself

2 coats over white.

1 coat over black. Wow!

What do you think of these 2 polishes from the Fifth Element Collection? I like Super Green the best, because I like the color on it's own and over black there is an awesome color shift. Both applied very easily and built up nicely on their own.

Lilacquer polishes can be purchased for $9 for 15mL at her Etsy Shop HERE

Wednesday, August 29, 2012

Hello lovely readers! I have a gorgeous collection to show you over the next 4 posts from an indie brand called Lilacquer. It's called the Fifth Element Collection and is 8 polishes, most of which are duochrome! Sadly, I've never seen the movie that these are inspired by.

I'm splitting them up into 4 separate posts for you so I will be showcasing the 2 blues today!

Here is a group shot of all 8 bottles for you!

As I said before, today's post is of the two "bluer" polishes. They happen to be my favorites from the collection as well! (No surprise there, I love blues!).

The Diva Plavalaguna and Supreme Being

First, we have The Diva Plavalaguna! As stated from Lilacquer's Etsy listing it is a "deep blackened blue shimmer that morphs to an aqua green." I really like this one a lot! Very gorgeous and covered well on it's own if you didn't want to wear it over a base color. I'm showing over black, white, and by itself so you can get a good feel for the polish. No topcoat.

Index: One coat over black
Middle: 2 coats over white

Ring and Pinky: 2 coats by itself

2 coats over white

Check out that duochrome! This is one coat over black! So gorgeous!

Next we have Supreme Being. I think this is my favorite of the collection. The duochrome is so strong, it's even seen while worn on it's own. From Lilacquer's Etsy listing, it's a "cornflower blue shimmer with pops of soft pink duochrome." Also being show over black, white, and by itself. It's a little more sheer needing 3 coats if worn on it's own for full coverage. No topcoat.

Index: One coat over black
Middle: 2 coats over white

Ring and Pinky: 3 coats by itself

2 coats over white.

1 coat over black. That is a strong duochrome!

What do you think of these 2 polishes? Which is your favorite? They both had great formulas and applied easily. I am definitely a fan.

Lilacquer polishes can be purchased for $9 for 15mL at her Etsy Shop HERE

Monday, August 27, 2012

Good morning, readers! I have a mani with 2 different indie brand polishes today that I think go great together! I had just put on DandyNails Eager Eyes(from her newest collection) when the mail arrived this weekend with another Copious.com purchase-- Rainbow Honey 20% Cooler. Holding the bottle for my "nail mail" picture to post to my Facebook page, I realized that they looked great together! I changed my mind for my original mani and put 20% Cooler over Eager Eyes, and then decided to mattify it! Love how it turned out!

Also, I got a new "light tent" in the mail and am getting used to taking my pictures in it instead of my old homemade light box. Tell me what you think of these pics!

I love the colors of the glitter in 20% Cooler!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

3 coats of DandyNails Eager Eyes

1 coat of Rainbow Honey 20% Cooler

1 coat of MASH Matte Top Coat

Here is a swatch of Eager Eyes before I added 20% Cooler. It's packed with little holo shimmers but I can't capture that in the light tent because the light is "softened" and the weather wasn't nice enough for sun photos this weekend.

Are you new to Copious.com? Or wondering what it is? It's an online marketplace where lots of people list polishes and other things for sale(not just beauty items!).Please click my referral link below for a free $10 sign up credit! I'll get $5 credit after you've received your first purchase as well! They often give out $10 credits to use and I've gotten 5 polishes for free since I've signed up! (Make sure you link it with your Facebook or Twitter account to be eligible for the credit)

Wednesday, August 22, 2012

Hello readers! I just love seeing a blog post or nail picture and bookmarking it to try it out myself. That's how I started out loving nail art, I would google nail art images and try to duplicate them or come up with something similar. Over a year later, and I still do this! Sunday, Sarah at Chalkboard Nails posted her jelly sandwich mani with China Glaze Rainstorm HERE (with her inspiration being Bridget of Polish? Oh My... on Instagram), and as soon as I saw it, I tried to get my hands on it. The wonderful Jen at My Nail Polish Obsession was kind enough to send it to me and it came in the mail today! I was so excited when Owen finally took a nap and I could try my own jelly sandwich with it!

Those two ladies used white glitters but I wanted to do something different and decided on NVL Rainbow Fish. I haven't posted about it yet and it seemed like a great pairing with this periwinkle-blue jelly polish. I absolutely love how they turned out! There is an awesome shimmer as well as teeny glitters in China Glaze Rainstorm so it's not as sheer as most of the jellies I'm used to using, but I still love it!

Look at the pretty shimmer and glitters in China Glaze Rainstorm!

I used:

Base coat of Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of China Glaze Rainstorm

1 coat of NVL Rainbow Fish

1 coat of China Glaze Rainstorm

1 coat of NYC quick dry top coat

What do you think of this pairing? I am really loving jelly sandwiches lately and can't wait to try out more. Thanks for reading!

Monday, August 20, 2012

Hello readers! I'm showing you a mani I did yesterday that I actually don't like very much. Sometimes nail art in my mind doesn't come out as great on my nails. It happens, life goes on. So I figured I'd show it to you anyway. Maybe we can learn together and compare later on if I get to do it over.

There are 2 things that are bugging me about it. First, the color combination. The inner spot color and base color looked much more different in the bottles but on the nail they blend together. I'll need much more contrasting colors next time. Second, I think I'll try a smaller dotting tool for the outside of the spots next time. They seem too thick and the spots are too close together.

I used Sarah at Chalkboard Nails tutorial/video HERE. Hers are so much prettier! Maybe I'll improve if I keep trying.

I received this gorgeous Nox Twilight Citrus polish in a swap with my friend, Gina, and that's what I decided to use for the base of this mani. It has a gorgeous golden shimmer and I love it! I'll do a comparison post later this week on it with a few more polishes in my stash to show you.

At least you can see the gorgeous shimmer in the base color!

And a bottle shot, because I'm a huge Twilight fan and am so happy to finally have a Nox Twilight polish!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Nox Twilight Citrus

Zoya Myrta and a dotting tool for the inner spots

China Glaze Passion and a dotting tool for the outer spots

NYC quick dry top coat

See what I mean about it not looking like there are 3 different colors on my nails? Oh well, next time! Thanks for reading!

Saturday, August 18, 2012

Hello readers! I have a jelly sandwich mani to show you today that I'm in love with! I've had it on for 4 days now and don't want to take it off!(But, I do have some chips from my cleaning spree so I must change it this afternoon if I am able to find the time).

I primarily ordered Zoya Frida on Copious because I wanted to do some jelly sandwiches with it and am so glad I did! I chose to try out Lynnderella Thank Blue! as the glitter layer and love that its also teal. The glitters seemed to glow and shimmer from within the jelly layers and really made it gorgeous! I wish you could see the holographic glitters better in my swatches because in person it's even better!

Just look at how squishy this looks!! And you can see a bit of the holo glitters showing other colors!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Zoya Frida

1 coat of Lynnderella Thank Blue!

1 coat of Zoya Frida

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

So what do you think? This makes me want to try tons of other jelly sandwich manis!

Are you new to Copious.com? Or wondering what it is? It's an online marketplace where lots of people list polishes and other things for sale(not just beauty items!). Please click my referral link below for a free $10 sign up credit! I'll get $5 credit after you've received your first purchase as well! They often give out $10 credits to use and I've gotten 5 polishes for free since I've signed up! (Make sure you link it with your Facebook or Twitter account to be eligible for the credit)

Thursday, August 16, 2012

Hi there, longest post title ever, right? I have a quick post today. I recently received both of these polishes and when they were sitting next to each other on my melmer, I thought they may look good together. See for yourself:

Look at all of the different colors in Float On, as well as the gorgeous pink shimmer in El Cap!

Monday, August 13, 2012

Good morning, readers! I have a fun new nail art technique to show you today! I found this awesome tutorial at Nailed It here and it's a super easy design that I LOVE the look of. I already am plotting out other color combinations to try out. My hubby said it looked like water, and I agree!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Zoya Zuza

1 coat of Zoya Song and some crumpled saran wrap

Cult Nails Wicked Fast Top Coat

I love finding new easy nail art techniques because I don't have as much time for my nails lately! You have to try this! What do you think? Thanks for reading!

Saturday, August 11, 2012

Hello, readers! I have a new polish brand to share with you today and a fun nail art technique I got to try out as well. These polishes were sent to me from Lime Crime and they are 7 pastel cremes with cute dessert themed names. The collection is called Les Desserts d'Antoinette and is described on their site as: "7 pastel shades, inspired by confectionary delights from Marie Antoinette's table. Recklessly pigmented crème formula is rich, smooth and opaque in just two coats. Each bottle comes equipped with a flat, wide brush for superb control and flawless application. Never tested on animals. 3-Free."First, let's see the Spun Sugar nail technique I tried out using all of the colors:

This was a really messy design that required a lot of clean up and a lot of time. Doing this many colors took me about an hour a hand! I'm thinking that next time I'll do an accent nail instead. Also, top coat ruined the look so I had to leave it off.

Onto the Lime Crime polishes:

I love the frosty bottles with the unicorn logo!

They all come in these cute individual boxes with name labels on the top as well!

Although they are marketed as two-coaters, I had a difficult time with application. Each of these are with 3 coats and they weren't as even as I'd be happy with. All shown without top coat.

Parfait Day is a bubblegum pink and it was one of the hardest for me to apply. It seemed that when I had enough polish on the brush to cover the entire nail, I'd start leaving ridges in it while evening it out.

Peaches ♥ Cream is a pastel orange and was also one of the hardest to apply evenly for me.

Crema De Limon surprised me by being one of the easier to apply. Normally, I find pastel yellows to be the hardest but this wasn't because it was a thinner formula. However, you can see a thin spot on the index finger where it didn't even out well.

Pastelchio is the brightest of the colors and I would call it almost neon instead of a pastel green. I love this color! It took some work to apply, though, and you can see on my index finger that there are still ridges from the application.

Once In A Blue Mousse was the easiest to apply and a really pretty robin's egg blue creme. Almost worked with 2 coats but I'm showing 3.

Lavendairy was another favorite of the colors for me but you can see the ridges from the brush again so it wasn't as smooth as the blue.

Lastly, Milky Ways. To me, this looks like an orange toned off white creme. This was the base for the nail art mani at the beginning of this post. This is such an odd color to me, I don't see myself wearing it on it's own, but I think it worked well as the base color for all of the others.

So what do you think of these Lime Crime polishes? I have to say that I love love love the colors. They are wonderful for nail art and I can't wait to try out more combinations with them. I had trouble with the application so I honestly don't know how often I'd go through the trouble to use them as base colors or on their own. I will add, however, that the application was easier when your layers were completely dry before adding another coat. They seemed to level out as they dried and that left a better surface for the next layer. I also think that adding a layer of top coat would smooth out the look as well. I love their packaging and the flat brush as well. I am so glad they are Vegan Friendly, 3-free, and Cruelty Free.

Lime Crime can be purchased on their site HERE for $5.99 a polish, or $39.99 for the set of all 7.

Wednesday, August 8, 2012

Good morning! I have another simple mani that I've been wearing to show you (I even did my toes to match!). Ever since Zoya Russia posted this photo on their facebook page for the combination of Song and Ivanka, I knew I had to try it. I love both colors so much and think they look awesome together!

I just got this gorgeous Zoya Song from Copious.com with one of their free $10 vouchers and am SO GLAD that I picked this one. It's such a gorgeous blue, I'm in love!

I used:

Duri Rejuvacote

2 coats of Zoya Song

3 coats of Zoya Ivanka

1 coat of Cult Nails Wicked Fast

I also recently started using Duri Rejuvacote as a base coat so I'll report in a few weeks how my nails are doing with it!

Zoya Song could be a one coater, I just did 2 out of habit. It dries a little dull so once the top coat gets put back on, the shimmery particles really show up! Love love love!

What do you think of this combo? I have a feeling I'll be trying out a lot more simple color combos in the future. Thanks for reading!

Sunday, August 5, 2012

Hello readers! I have 2 indie polishes to show you from Pam at Paint Box Polish. They are Harry Potter themed! I just love the Harry Potter book and movies, so when Pam contacted me I was pretty excited to try them! She currently has 4 colors in her Etsy Shop, each based off of a Harry Potter House color(Gryffindor, Slytherin, Ravenclaw, and Hufflepuff). Pam is also testing another set of polishes so keep an eye out for them!

I was sent Gryffindor and Ravenclaw to share with you!

First, here is Gryffindor. It's a gorgeous burnt orange with gold glitters throughout. The glitters are tiny, irregular shapes and reminded me of tiny flakies! I loved this polish so much more than I expected once I had it on my nails. This was two easy coats and it applied nicely. It dries semi-matte so I used topcoat in my photos.

Look at the irregular gold glitters! So pretty!

Next, here is Ravenclaw. I love blues, so I was really excited to get to try this one out. It has similar irregular glitters to Gryffindor but these are bronze and not gold. This was also just two easy coats, with top coat to add some shine!

I love this glitter!

So, what did you think of these two house colors? I really liked them, they were easy to apply and covered nicely in 2 coats. I like that the glitters were tiny enough to not distract from the main color as well.

Pam has graciously given you all a 20% off code to use in her shop for the next 30 days! Just use ADVENTURES20 when you make your purchase!

A big thank you goes out to Pam for sending these my way to try out! Go check out the Paint Box Polish Facebook Page to keep up to date with new releases!

Sheila at Pointless Cafe recently reviewed Gryffindor and Slytherin so go check out her post HERE!